The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to helicopters or other aircraft. More specifically, the subject disclosure relates to operator visibility from a cockpit of an aircraft.
Cockpits of aircraft, in particular, helicopters, have three visual components: useful external view, avionics (displays and instrumentation), and remaining visual impairments (such as window posts and floor structure). The useful external view is provided by portions of windows forward of, to the side of, and in some cases below, crew member positions in the cockpit. Crew member, such as pilot and copilot, positions in the aircraft are equipped with avionics such as primary flight displays (PFD's) positioned forward of the crew member positions. The positions of the PFD's and other avionics are determined by regulations regarding Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) conditions. Such positioning, however, negatively impacts forward, downward, and cross-cockpit useful external view for the crew members during Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions, which occurs over 80% of the time, including takeoff and landing of the helicopter and when flying toward or near ground obstacles. Cross-cockpit visibility in particular, is blocked by the cross-cockpit crew member's PFD.